'Virtual 9/11' Brings Ground Zero Survivors Real Healing

MONDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Psychologists estimate that hundreds, even thousands, of people directly affected by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, are still crippled by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Could a virtual-reality "revisiting" of that horrific day actually help them?

New York City psychiatrist Judith Cukor believes that it can.

"We are getting tons of calls for 9/11-related post-traumatic stress disorder -- it's five years out, and we are still seeing people who have never had treatment," said Cukor, an instructor in the department of psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "A lot of people have had traditional treatment, too, but it's not helping."

Cukor is supervising a unique clinical trial that uses high-tech virtual reality to help fight the more stubborn cases of 9/11-linked post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. "We're seeing very positive results here, in terms of people finally getting better," she said.

For people who suffer from the emotional numbness, terrifying flashbacks, nightmares and avoidance behaviors of PTSD, "exposure therapy" remains the gold-standard treatment. The therapy involves patients being asked to imagine in detail the past event that caused them such pain.

It sounds counterintuitive, but this type of controlled re-exposure "allows your brain to metabolize it, break it down and deal with it," Cukor explained. "At the end of the treatment, people's memories are still sad and difficult, but they are not taking over their lives."

In many cases, however, simply imagining the scene isn't enough.

"Sometimes people aren't able to engage when they close their eyes -- they are still avoiding," explained Cukor, an instructor in the department of psychiatry at Weill Cornell. "That's where virtual reality comes in."

The new project at Weill Cornell uses state-of-the-art, multi-sensory technology to create a "virtual reality 9/11" that helps PTSD patients break through that avoidance "wall" and find the path to healing. During a typical session, patients stand in place, wearing the type of video-equipped helmet usually associated with high-end video games.

Except this is no game. Instead, the programmers who designed this "virtual 9/11" listened carefully to eyewitness accounts and recreated that day onscreen in fine detail. Patients see and hear the first notes of alarm from inside the offices of the Twin Towers. They frantically search for an exit. They make the nerve-wracking descent down long, claustrophobic stairwells and finally emerge into the ensuing chaos on the ground.

The technology works so that the participant scans their virtual environment in 3-D, with the scene changing perspective as they move or tilt their head. At key moments -- such as when a plane hits one of the Towers -- the platform upon which the user is standing can be made to rumble and shake, much like the buildings' floors did on that fateful day. As patients recount their memories aloud, the clinician -- who is sitting next to them -- manipulates the program to add in sights or sounds to better match what the patient is recalling.